Engagement shots outdoors/ Setting help

[dlhedg]

Hello,

I need advice with possible starting setting for outdoor engagement photos. The sun will be behind the person being photographed. I am curious what type of manual setting that would be used. I have a Digital rebel, tamron 28-70 f2.8 and a 580 canon flash.
iso of 100
possible 250 shutter

I want to expose some of the back groud. so maybe 5.6 apeture.

Please help
dan h

[mvonditter]

One immediate thing that comes to mind is to rotate the subject so that your flash can create at least some shadow on the face(s) with the sun behind them. Also, with the sun behind them, I wouldn’t want to much depth to the shot. Just IMO. You know what they say about opinion. :-)

[blackviolet]

i'm not a wedding/engagement/divorce/whatever else shooter, but when taking photos of someone with their backs to the sun, fill flash or a reflector will give light and detail to their faces. in AV or TV modes, it will expose for ambient light and will use the flash for fill.


do you have a guinea pig who you can use to practice/experiment on?

[Akreager]

set the camera to properly expose the background. This will need to be done so that the shutter speed is at or below max flash sync - you will have to stop down to a higher f setting or if you want to maintain shallow depth of field (say f2.8-4.0) you can ad a 2x, 4x, or 8x neutral density filter. You then set the flash for balanced fill flash and both background and subject will be exposed properly.

[dlhedg]

Thanks to all for the help. i have "practice dummies" Prior to the main shots. I will plan to set my flash to sync with the shutter speed slightly turn the individuals. have on apeture between 2.8-4. THanks for the help